There, Ehrenreich was stunned to discover his own picture on the wall, a still from his starring role in Coppola's 2009 drama "Tetro." "In my very short career, I've gotten to be a little member of a big legacy in a lot of different films - it's very emotional for me, because it's like, wow! There's 'Apocalypse Now' and then there's that photo," the 23-year-old actor says.

Star-crossed couple

In its own way, "Beautiful Creatures," Richard LaGravenese's adaptation of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's teen fantasy novel and the first of a four-book series, adds to the legacy that Ehrenreich speaks of for both young actors.

The pair play a star-crossed couple in the film. He is Ethan, a mortal teenager stuck in tiny Gatlin, S.C., and dreaming of escape, while she is Lena, the new girl in town, ostracized for being different - although among her classmates only Ethan knows what the source of her difference is and how steeped it is in the supernatural.

"They were really smart in getting those actors. It meant they could cast unknowns as the leads," Englert says.

"Working with these people, it brings you to another level," Ehrenreich adds. "It's like when you play tennis and you play someone better than you, you step up your game. We would both watch on the monitor when Jeremy and Viola or Emma were doing a scene together, it was like a free acting class."

Eighteen-year-old Englert made her screen debut as a preteen in "The Water Diary," a 2006 short directed by her mother, "The Piano" director Jane Campion. A starring role in Sally Potter's 2012 drama "Ginger & Rosa" marked her introduction to features, and she has two more films due out this year, "In Fear" and "Singularity."

More seasoned

Ehrenreich is more seasoned, with two Coppola features under his belt, "Tetro" and "Twixt," plus some TV and shorts and roles in the forthcoming features "Stoker," "Running Wild" and "Blue Jasmine." Both are at similar points in their careers.

For both, one of the lures of "Beautiful Creatures," a mainstream Hollywood movie and an adaptation of a book with a devoted young audience, was the involvement of LaGravenese, an Oscar nominee for his screenplay for Terry Gilliam's "The Fisher King," who also penned such scripts as "The Ref" and "Beloved" and is the writer-director of such films as "Living Out Loud" and "The Freedom Writers."

"For me, it was definitely meeting Richard and it being his script and having this film, which could be a franchise, the fact that it was in his hands was very important, because at first I was nervous, I was nervous of big American movies," says Englert.

"When I first sat down with Richard, the thing that really sealed the deal for me was he said, 'You know, I really want to do something in this genre, but do it with wit, intelligence and humor,' " says Ehrenreich, who was among the last to sign on to the movie.

The project's 'glue'

"He said, 'Everybody else has that point of view on what we're doing.' That's what I felt was the glue that held the whole project together. Everybody was invested in this that it could mean a little bit more, nobody was settling for the most conventional way.

"Both of us - Alice and I - didn't audition for the film at first, because we didn't read the script. Once we read the script, we were both really interested, because Richard - and the book - but Richard also really infused this type of movie with its own DNA and its own unique characters and its own human element, and so that's what I feel attracted both of us to it."

Ethan is an ordinary boy, while Lena is an extraordinary girl, but another thing that sets the film apart from others in the teen genre is the way that relationship plays out, another selling point for the two actors.

"It's not this idealized relationship, fighting against these external forces," Ehrenreich says. "I mean, they have to fight against the supernatural forces and all this stuff that's trying to tear them apart, but at the same time, you see that this is a real relationship, it's real people. There are fights and we get in moods and we get mad at each other and that kind of thing.

"I appreciated that, because that, to me, isn't feeding an unrealistic idea to a young person who might then - I think just all those stories that idealize relationships so much set people up for so much disappointment. To me, the movie has a device of accepting a lot of things about being human that I appreciate."

Regardless of what fate awaits it at the box office, "Beautiful Creatures" has fans in its stars, who appreciate the opportunity it represents for them, as well as the chance they've been given to work with such heady co-stars and a filmmaker in LaGravenese who put so much thought into the endeavor.

"You needed intelligent people to make a film like this, because it could easily become something really cheesy," Englert says. "There's a lot of compromise often, and I don't feel compromised, which is a real pleasure."

The best story

"When I was reading scripts at the time, this movie had the best characters, best scenes and best story of any of the movies I was reading in all brackets of big movie, small movie and all that," Ehrenreich says.

"What's nice about this is getting to be in a movie that people will see, that you believe in and it still has something to say that you believe in," he adds. "I feel like I get to enjoy the benefits of being in a commercial, big movie without having to sell out, and I really, really appreciate that." {sbox}